I prepare a lot of candied citrus peel for holiday gifts. Over the years I have perfected my technique to speed up the process of getting the peel off the fruit to obtain the greatest yield. It is also faster and easier on my hands.
In the photos I show the peel cut into strips, however I also use the little garnish cutters and cut the peel into stars, petals, other shapes which this technique also facilitates.
Note, the spoon is a rather blunt tipped soup spoon. The orange is a navel - seedless.
First you insert the spoon between the peel and the flesh and go around the circumference from the top end and then do the same from the bottom end until you can feel that the flesh is free from the peel. Then make the single cut from top to bottom and flatten the peel.
(Some people like to parboil the peel all in one piece but I've never bothered - I just cut it the way I want.
I also do small batches of peel in the microwave, both the pre-boiling to remove the bitterness from the white part and the candying itself.
If anyone is interested, it is explained here:
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/127934-microwave-candied-citrus-peel-small-batch/page__p__1696566__hl__candied%20orange%20peel__fromsearch__1&#entry1696566
